Twin explosions hit Iraqi capital

At least 11 people have been killed and 20 others have been injured in twin explosions in the Iraqi capital, including one in a busy Shia neighbourhood.

In the first explosion early on Tuesday, a car bomb blew up at the Jididah district, killing at least seven people and wounding at least 20 others.

In the second incident, at least four people were killed in a roadside bomb in al-Dora south of the capital.  

Meanwhile, the death toll from Monday night’s double car bombing on a busy commercial street in another Shia neighbourhood of Utaifiyah in the capital has risen to 19.

At least 78 people have been killed across Iraq in the last 24 hours.

Since early this year, Iraq has been facing increasing levels of violence targeting Shia neighbourhoods as the self-declared jihadist Islamic State group and other Sunni fighters have taken over areas in the country’s west and north.

The group took over Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, in June.

The peshmerga, the Kurdish forces that control the north of Iraq, and the Iraqi army have been fighting against the Islamic State.

Iraq’s newly appointed prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, on Monday called on the country’s numerous fighter groups and tribes to come under government control and stop acting independent of the government.

Abadi said that fighters roaming the streets alone “worries me and I consider it very dangerous”.